I have been a scientist in the field of the earth and environmental sciences for 33 years, specializing in geologic disposal of nuclear waste, energy-related research, planetary surface processes, subsurface transport and environmental clean-up of heavy metals. I am a Trustee of the Herbert M. Parker Foundation and consult on strategic planning for the DOE, EPA/State environmental agencies, and industry including companies that own nuclear, hydro, wind farms, large solar arrays, coal and gas plants. I also consult for EPA/State environmental agencies and industry on clean-up of heavy metals from soil and water. For over 20 years I have been a member of Sierra Club, Greenpeace, the NRDC, the Environmental Defense Fund and many others, as well as professional societies including the America Nuclear Society, the American Chemical Society and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

It's Crazy To Think Keystone XL Won't Leak

With over 16,000 sensors tied to automatic shut-offs, the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline (as in Xtra-Large) is not your father’s pipeline. However, it’s still a pipeline, and the long history of ruptures, leaks, spills and other “incidents” call attention to the problems that face all pipelines in America.

We just don’t maintain them like we should.

And it’s the same for all critical infrastructure. The corporations that build and operate this infrastructure talk about all the bells and whistles they have to make them safe, and promise to do so, but history says differently. Decades after these things are built, the industry just doesn’t care anymore.

It’s not that these pipelines and rigs can’t be run safely, it’s that they aren’t. Maybe the managers and operators who originally built them once cared, but after they’ve retired or died, the new managers don’t have the same ownership.

Just look at last weeks’ Exxon Pegasus pipeline spill in the middle of an Arkansas neighborhood. Almost a hundred thousand gallons of heavy crude poured down the street of homeowners who didn’t even know the pipeline was there. It was 65 years old. Everyone who worked on it is dead.

And this was the second U.S. spill in a week involving Canadian crude (Reuters).

At the time Pegasus was built, it was state-of-the-art. But like any system, it needs upkeep and maintenance. Why isn’t that happening? With any of our millions of miles of pipelines? And why does anyone think it will be different with Keystone XL?

Exxon installed what it called newleak detection technology in the Pegasus line in 2009.

How’d that work out?

It’s not like Keystone XL will leak in the first five years following its construction, but it will in the decades following that, for just the same reason.

ExxonMobil was fined nearly $2 million for a similar spill in 2011 in the Yellowstone River. And regulators are considering a similar fine for the Pegasus.

$2 million? Really? This is a punishment that fits this crime? Unless the fines erase the $50 billion in annual profits, and the $20 billion in annual tax breaks, these companies will continue to laugh off millions, and even billions, that don’t put a dent in the bottom line.

The Pegasus pipeline can carry 90,000 barrels of crude a day. Keystone XL will carry up to 700,000 barrels per day. Vehement cries to shut these down are met with equally vehement cries of the critical importance of this oil to our economy and energy security.

If this is so critical, you’d think the industry would care about maintaining it. The value from this pipeline alone should ensure inspection and care. I mean, at just under $100 per barrel, this is $3.2 billion a year flowing through Pegasus. In just one pipeline!

Keystone XL would carry over $25 billion per year. You’d think that would result in a little oversight.

Exxon was fined in 2010 for not inspecting the Pegasus. Obviously, they didn’t feel that million-dollar pain. And why would they, $2 million is less than the cost to inspect and maintain the lines – less than one days’ worth of oil flowing through it. So just wait until it breaks and then pay the fine. No biggie.

It won’t be any different with Keystone XL. Who’s going to inspect those 16,000 sensors? Is anything required to happen when they do go out? Is there a legally-binding maintenance agreement that carries hefty penalties if ignored? Is the fine high enough to make it happen? Will any signatories be alive when it does?

No. And that’s the problem.

Thousands of miles of pipelines run over the Ogallala aquifer, which cannot be replaced or cleaned-up. When that goes, we’ll have a bigger problem than energy security.

It’s not the oil business that’s bad, it’s the business-as-usual that’s bad.

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You remind me of the folks who go nuts whenever an airliner goes down, completely ignoring the fact that there is NO safer way to travel. Can accidents be totally avoided? Of course not. But maybe the American public would be better served by journalists such as yourself paying attention to a far less safe method of oil transportation that runs thru many more backyards: railroads

From 2010 to 2012, 112 oil spills were reported from U.S. rail tanker cars, up from just 10 in the previous three years, according to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, a part of the Department of Transportation that tracks most releases of hazardous materials. One 2009 analysis of oil spills between 1980 and 2003 done for the American Petroleum Institute by Environmental Research Consulting found 80 out of every 1 billion gallons transported via rail spilled, compared to 38 out of every 1 billion gallons transported via pipeline. Pipelines may not be the perfect answer, but there is no perfect answer. They still represent the safest, fastest, most economical and yes, most environmentally friendly method of transporting petroleum products yet devised. Look at the bright side: Pegasus went 65 years without a leak. Based on what all the know-it-alls are telling us, there likely won’t be any oil left to transport when the Keystone pipeline is 65 years old!

Not sure what you thought you were reading, but I said we can do this safely if we maintain the infrastructure. We just don’t do the inspections or the repairs because it’s cheaper to pay the fines. Of course there’s no perfect answer, but the small amount invested in maintenance is more than worth it. And we have oil for the next 1,000 years – peak was just a concept for conventional fossil fuel. Keystone XL is meant for unconventionals.

1000 years? did you pull that number out of your ass? “We just don’t do the inspections or the repairs because it’s cheaper to pay the fines” You mean they need a better maintenance procedure in place. You need to brush up your knowledge on pipeline maintenance procedures before you write this article because it makes you look ignorant.

Yes, I mean better maintenance procedures and possibly protocols on when to allow changes such as switching from light crude to heavy crude before it’s 40 years old, or something. As to the 1,000 years, no that’s a real number based on estimates of all fossil fuel deposits, both conventional and unconventional, but without the historic “economically recoverable” qualifier, since that has become meaningless. We will be able to recover most of this if we want to, and if we fail to wean ourselves off of fossil fuel at all. These time estimates are very dependent upon demographic projections (whether we are at 10 billion or 5 billion for most of the next 1000 years, very subjective) and assumptions on the percentage of fossil fuels in the mix. I am assuming 5 billion people will be the steady-state global population after 2150 or so, and that fossil fuels make up only a third of our energy needs instead of the present two-thirds. There are also assumptions on the use of coal-to-gasoline, gas hydrates, electric versus natural, gas vehicles. You’re right in that you could come up with anything from 400 to 1500 years if you made the correct assumptions.

Please don’t back track on your opinion because of a few comments by people who have no idea about the destruction this pipeline is about to do to our envirnment. That pipeline is on my neighbors property, and I can tell you that it is made out of cheap materials, and will not last for very long before it spills. You were right when you said this is not your father’s pipeline. Our fathers had morals, and ethics, and most tried to create things that would last because it was the right thing to do. They had pride in their work, and concern for the health, and safety of others. That pipeline is running right through our wetlands. Enbride has been given the right to condemn our property if we object to anything they want to do to our land. A foreign company has been given the ablity to steal our land if question what they ae doing. They are tearing down our trees, and ripping up our roads. They have already done almost a million dollars in damage to the sewer lines, and are waffling about who will pay. They spilled in Marshall Michigan, and still haven’t cleaned up that mess. They grew grass over the top of it tryoing to conceal it. Unless you live near, or on the pipeline you should shut the f**k up. Michigan is surrounded by the Great Lakes which is the largest body of fresh water in the United States. That pipeline is threatening our water supply. Water trumps oil everytime.